Skills
Development essay
In my foundation portfolio I did a preliminary exercise
which was to create front cover and contents page for a college. I had to
research a target audience for my magazine, analysing different magazines
available. I then had to decide a price and a publish date for my magazine.
Once I had my final decisions I had to take pictures and use Photoshop to place
and edit them to create my magazine. My college magazine included all the
conventions needed which were situated on the right third of my magazine I also
used a medium close-up shot of my model, which the brief asked me to do. My
main task was to create a front cover, contents page and double page spread for
a music magazine using a featured artist suitable for the genre I chose (RnB).
The music magazine consisted of more conventions being used and more images
being taken. I had to think about a suitable price and suitable subtitles on
the front and other promotions on the contents page to attract my target
audience and link them to my genre.
Before I started AS media I had a few skills within the creativity
area. I was able to use Microsoft word, PowerPoint and a little on Photoshop
but I was unaware of sites such as ‘Prezi’. Over the year my skills progressed
through the use of trial and error on Photoshop to see what worked with my
colour scheme and photos taken on my Fuji camera. I also used Prezi to create a
range of ideas that I thought may or may not work with my idea for both
magazines. I had my original ideas which I then changed or developed further.
The creativity came from the lighting and the choice of clothing in which my
model wore for the ‘photo-shoot’ and also using Photoshop to create different
tones and colour to create a better photo to use for my main features on both
front covers, the contents page and the double page spread within my music
magazine. Once I was happy with my images I then decided on the best position
to place my images within my magazine, along with the subtitles and other
conventions within the magazine. Through the editing of my magazine I asked for
others opinions and took into consideration what they thought would make the
magazine look more appealing to the target audience. I feel all these skills
used were good for my foundation portfolio because I had few skills which I
feel wouldn’t have given me the opportunity to create the college magazine and
music magazine.
The skills learnt helped me move my process forward as I had to
think about a colour scheme to use which I had decided along the way by changing
the contrast or brightness of the imagery taken, I also chose to edit more than
one image to see which ones worked well for the brief given and also the area
to take my images had to be thought through as well. An example of how my
skills have progressed is we learnt how to make skin look porcelain. I used
Photo shop throughout my product using a range of procedures. These include
changing the scale of my images to make them fit to the correct size, I also
used a You Tube clip too help me create a porcelain skin effect on my model to
use for my front cover, contents and double page spread, I also use spot fix
which helped me remove and unwanted spots or moles from my image. The Gaussian
blur tool helped me with my porcelain skin effect which became very useful
throughout the making of my media product. I also used publisher to make my
article for my double page spread as it was easier to use. The character for my
fonts and layout were very useful as there are a range of fonts I could use for
my music magazine and also the colours were thought out to create the effect I
wanted within my music magazine. The quick selection tool within Photo shop
meant I could erase any unwanted background quickly and easily without any
hassle of erasing any of my imagery.
The two pieces of work differ because although the
model is the same person I have changed to style of image, the pose and
clothing, I have also changed the layout and colour scheme for my magazine to
show how I have improved my work to create my music and college magazine. I
feel the music magazine looks a lot better because of the skills I have picked
up within Photo shop and because I used other music magazines to get ideas I
feel creating a music magazine was a lot easier to create than a college
magazine I also had a lot longer to create my music magazine so I could
constantly change my music magazine to make it better by a simple procedure of
colour or levels within Photo shop. I had
to plan my magazines very carefully to attract the target audience, I did this
by creating questionnaires to students, to see what they would expect from a
music magazine, I also planned the images I was thinking of taking and the
model I was going to use both were very easy to think about as I knew exactly
what I wanted to do, although I did have to change the positioning of my model I
feel my original ideas helped me a lot with creating my magazine.
In conclusion I feel all the skills gained from my AS year helped me
improve my skills on Photoshop, but also I can now look at my work and if I wanted
to I could create much better magazines, looking at my college magazine and
then my music magazine shows how much I have learnt and how the slightest edit
can make something look so much better. Word Count- 996
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